page_title: Mutual Street Arena
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Mutual Street Arena / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Inauguration of The United Church of Canada on June 10, 1925 at Mutual Street Arena in Toronto.
context_page_description: Mutual Street Arena, initially called Arena Gardens or just the Arena, was an ice hockey arena and sports and entertainment venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1912 until 1931, with the opening of Maple Leaf Gardens, it was the premier site of ice hockey in Toronto, being home to teams from the National Hockey Association, the National Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey Association and the International Hockey League. It was the first home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who played at the arena under various names for their first 13½ seasons. The Arena Gardens was the third rink in Canada to feature a mechanically frozen or 'artificial' ice surface, and for eleven years was the only such facility in eastern Canada. In 1923, it was the site of the first radio broadcast of an ice hockey game, the first radio broadcast of an NHL game, and the first broadcast of an ice hockey game by long-time broadcaster Foster Hewitt.
  The Arena was also used for musical concerts, gatherings and other sporting events, including professional boxing, cycling, wrestling and tennis. In 1962, it was converted to a curling club and roller skating rink known as The Terrace.
context_section_description: It was constructed for a reported cost of CA$500,000 and opened in 1912. It was built on the site of the Mutual Street Rink, used primarily for curling and ice skating between Dundas Street East and Shuter Street. At the time, it was billed as the largest indoor arena in Canada and held about 7,500 for hockey. The rink was owned by the Toronto Arena Company, organized September 19, 1911, with Sir Henry Pellatt as president, Lol Solman as managing director, and directors Aemilius Jarvis, Joseph Kilgour, T.W. Horn, R.A. Smith, and Col. Carlson. There were two other directors from Montreal. W. J. Bellingham was the initial manager.
  The Arena opened with a performance by Nathan Franko's Orchestra on October 7, 1912, supporting a recital by Alice Neville, soprano of the Metropolitan Opera, tenor Orville Harold and a company of opera singers from the Boston Opera Company organized by Neville. It was the first of a series called the Toronto Music Festival. Entrances to the various blue and red seating sections were indicated by corresponding blue and red lights on the outside of the building. It was followed the next day by a recital by Johanna Gadski with Franko's orchestra. The festival continued all week, concluding on October 12 with a variety show headlined by Canadian theatre and film actress Marie Dressler. Americans Yvonne de Tréville, Charlotte Maconda and Rosa Olitzka sang arias from several operas while Dressler performed a comedic reading of the poem "The Glove" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, singing "burlesque opera solos" to the accompaniment of Nathan Franko's Orchestra.
  Arena Gardens was initially home to two new teams in the National Hockey Association (NHA): the Toronto Hockey Club and the Tecumseh Hockey Club. Delays in construction meant that the teams could not play in the 1911-12 season, as was originally scheduled. The 12 miles (19 km) of piping for the artificial ice was installed improperly and had to be reinstalled in December 1912. The first professional ice hockey game in the building was on December 21, 1912, an exhibition between the Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Wanderers. Sprague Cleghorn was suspended for four weeks and fined $65 by the NHA for assaulting the Canadiens' Newsy Lalonde in the game. The first official game was on December 25, 1912, a game between the Canadiens and the Torontos. Upon the suspension of the NHA in 1917, the professional franchise of the new National Hockey League (NHL) for Toronto was operated by the Toronto Arena itself. The franchise was operated by the Arena for two years before being sold to become the Toronto St. Patricks. The St. Pats became the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927 and played at Arena Gardens until the completion of Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931. Until 1923, the Arena was the only facility east of Manitoba with artificial ice-making capability. With this in mind, the St. Pats often let other teams use the Arena as a neutral site during the early and late months of the season, when it was usually too warm for proper ice.
  The year 1922 saw the first professional wrestling bout at the Arena, between former world champion Stanislaus Zbyszko and Canadian champion George Walker. Professional wrestling would continue at the Arena until 1938. Promoter Ivan Mickailof began promoting weekly shows in 1929. Some of the names that Mickailof presented at the Arena included Strangler Lewis and Toots Mondt, as well as reigning world champions Gus Sonnenberg, Ed Don George, Henri Deglane, Jim Londos, Ali Baba, Vic Christie, Everett Marshall and Billy Weidner, who all defended their titles at the Arena.
  On February 8, 1923, the first radio broadcast of an ice hockey game was made from the Arena by the Toronto Daily Star's  CFCA radio station. Norman Albert did the play-by-play of the third period of a game between North Toronto and Midland, won by North Toronto 16–4. Later that season, Foster Hewitt made his first radio broadcasts from the Arena, also on CFCA. A game on February 14, 1923 featured the Toronto St. Pats and the Ottawa Senators, and is the first NHL game to be broad
caption: Photograph of United Church inaugural service
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